Rogue Of The Week: “50s Bikeway” Haters

Seeing problems where there aren’t any.

About 150 Portlanders filled a gym last week in the
Woodstock neighborhood to hear city officials pitch a new 4 1/2-mile
bike route going through the neighborhood.

The Rogue Desk
notes the location for the city’s Jan. 26 open house—Our Lady of
Sorrows Parish—couldn’t have been more apt. The sorrow on display by supposedly parking-starved residents at
the city’s presentation for its “50s bikeway” (so named because the
proposed route runs from Northeast Thompson Street and 57th Avenue south
to Southeast Woodstock Boulevard and 52nd Avenue) was of apocalyptic
proportions.

Blame the frigid
winter temperatures for our crankiness, but the NIMBYish arguing over
roadways means the Rogue Desk is naming the neighbors hating on
Portland’s 50s bikeway Rogues of the Week.

If they had a
legitimate concern, we’d listen. But most of the whining last week had
to do with what some Portlanders consider an inalienable right—free
on-street parking. A map of the proposed bikeway filled an entire wall
of the gym, and city officials invited attendees to write their comments
on Post-it notes they could then stick to the map.

“Don’t take away
parking on 52nd,” one read. “This is a terrible idea!” “What about the
elderly?” asked another, with no explanation for what that meant.
“Nobody bikes here anyway,” asserted another.

Actually, compared
with elsewhere in the city, nobody parks on 52nd Avenue. The proposal
would eliminate parking on one side of 52nd Ave. A study of the area
showed a peak use of 30 percent for those spots.

Our final note from
the evening of the open house, at 6:30 pm: The Rogue Desk spotted one
car parked on the 12-block stretch of Southeast 52nd Avenue between
Holgate and Woodstock.